Jeff Fox: Wealth of resources at Missouri Extension

Google University of Missouri Extension Service, and you’ll get a website pointing you to topics such as agriculture, lawn care and nutrition.

And this – business and careers. Yes, University Extension offers a wide range of services beyond the traditional subjects. Need to know how to write a business plan? Or win government contracts? Or adapt to social media? Extension has resources to offer.

“We try to focus every part of the university into what we do in extension,” said University of Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton.

Deaton was in Kansas City last week for the dedication of a new extension office at Fifth Street and Grand Avenue in the River Market area (relocated from the Pioneer campus of Metropolitan Community Colleges). It’s near the farmers market with all that fresh produce, well in line with Extension’s goals of promoting healthy eating and good home economics.

“This is really extension in an urban setting,” Deaton said.

Jackson County’s other Extension office is at 1106 W. Main St. in downtown Blue Springs.

Go to http://extension.missouri.edu/ for a wealth of information. One example: In the calendar, you’ll find “Winning Government Contracts: The First Steps,” a seminar held regularly at the Mizzou Center at 1600 N.E. Coronado Drive in Blue Springs. It’s an overview by the Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

The next one is from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 17. It’s $50. Call David Jerome at 816-655-6229 to sign up.

Coming to town?

• Dunkin’ Donuts says it still plans to come to Blue Springs, but it will be sometime in 2014.

The company, which opened a shop on Missouri 291 in Independence last year, was set to open on Missouri 7 just north of Interstate 70 in 2013. It got city approval more than a year ago, but that location hasn’t materialized. Ditto for plans in the Grain Valley/Oak Grove area.

No word from the company yet on exactly when or where it will come to Blue Springs.

• I keep getting asked: What’s up with Wal-Mart building a neighborhood store at 35th and Noland in Independence. The company got a city business permit for a grocery store at that site, Gaslight Square, on June 3, and The Examiner has previously reported on these plans, but the company still says – as it has for weeks – it has nothing to announce.

• MinuteClinic has opened a facility inside the CVS plarmacy at 3201 S. Missouri 7. It’s MinuteClinic’s first site in Blue Springs. CVS also has opened two new stores in recent weeks, on Woods Chapel Road in Blue Springs and on 23rd Street just west of Crysler in Independence.

Page 2 of 2 - One more bit of pharmacy news: Walgreens has opened a store inside Truman Medical Centers-Lakewood, the public hospital on Lee’s Summit Road that serves a significant number of people from Eastern Jackson County.

Jeff Fox is The Examiner’s business reporter and editor. Reach him at jeff.fox@examiner.net or 816-350-6331. Follow him on Twitter @FoxEJC or @Jeff_Fox.